Endless Space

I love strategy games, unfortunately I'm kind of new to 4x (both RTS and TB), so would like to know which one is for me taking in consideration:

- Love macro instead of micro management (love automating, like Civ's "scout" option or the cities advisors)- Dislike huge tech trees- Spaceship customization is a plus, but not mandatory- Diplomacy- Multiplayer not important- Easy to begin- Not a steep learning curve- Good looking- Campaign or any story (apart from sandbox mode)

Already played SotSE, and loved it, but want something turn based, without being extremely difficult.

Well it's like this. The game takes some using to( tech tree is is a bit complicate at first glance, but you don't need to end it to win the(unless you want the tech victory)).Yes you can make your ships automated for scouting and you can make the AI take care of your worlds, the art is very beautiful.You have ofc all the elements of diplomacy. Overall i find the game to be very good, a pretty nice community(you should check out the forums), another nice thing about this is that you can vote for many elements of the game(right now we are voting for the over all aspect of the bombers and fighters that are going to be in the new expansion.TotalBiscuit did a WTF video about the game. It's a bit outdated since things changed in the game( 4 new free add-ons) but it should give you an overview of what the game is all about.I never played StarDrive so i can't say if it's better or not. Gl man and have fun.

I can't really judge the game without being too biased, but we've had good reviews about our intuitive and good looking UI and artwork. It is apparently easy to pick up for the genre, though you'd have to read carefully the tutorial and just play and play again to understand the basics and improve your strategy.

I haven't tried StarDrive, but it is apparently not a turn based game. Judging from the few gameplay videos and trailer I have seen, it seems to have an interesting FTL-like ship design screen, and a fun diplomacy system (I admit it, the cute owl made me go all "awww" but that does not really matter. :D).

But as suggested above, you should really look for Let's Play videos on Youtube: it's always interesting to look at the gameplay and see if it suits you.

I saw the WTF video last night, unfortunately cannot find any non-biased reviews about StarDrive. Would it be possible for anyone who has played both to give pros and cons or comparison? Can't find anything online

I haven't played Star Drive, but from my research people are saying that it has potential but still needs polishing and needs automation features added (there is a lot of micromanagement that most games automate). In addition, my understanding is that Star Drive is like SoaSE in that it is in Real Time, not Turn Based.

I just finished part 1 of a Let's Play/guide for Endless Space, however. So if you want to learn how ES plays, I recommend giving it a watch (most of the important info can be gleaned in the first 20-30 minutes): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OINRKhAF3I

I have both games, and in my oppinion Stardrive is better than ES. But hey are quite different so its not that easy to compare them. And of corse this is just my oppinion, you wont really know which one do you like more, until you have played both.

To be honest i haven't touched ES for 2 months, i got bored of it - just played too much i guess- so i sadly cant give you a deep comparison, because ES have had some changes from then.

But i will write some more general comparison:

>Both games will continue to evolve, none of them is final, but ES is completed, SD is in beta.

>ES is more pleasing to the eye, it has better design and UI, SD has a poor UI

>ES is turn based while SD is real time turn based - yes its not completely real time.

>SD has superb combat and ship design system which is a VERY big plus in a space 4X game. Make sure you watch a video showing a combat in ES and SD too.

>You can have a lot of ships and fleets in both games, but a LOT more in SD than ES. And the battles are more spectacular in SD.

>Both games have the classic tech tree-research stuff, ES has a big tree, but its a bit boring and empty, while SD has a small tech tree, and its unfinished. But at least it matters what do you research.

>None of the games has campaign, but they say SD will get something like this after 1-2 from release.

>Automatization features are not that great in SD, and its more micro-macro heavy, might not suit newcomers to the genre.

And for the last point: SD is an early-mid beta, and only one dude is developing it, its missing a lot features and has some bugs, but we get patches almost in every second day.Lot of stuff will be added to SD, but most of them only after the final release.

If you want to spend your money reliably buy ES its a great game and if you look it up, you will know what you get for your money. SD is a bit far from what we were promised, and its not guaranteed that we will get it at all (what if Zero gets hit by a bus?).

But if you dont mind to buy a half polished product, buy Stardrive, it looks more promising (at least for my eyes), and by time it will improve (i hope so, i put my money in it)

Combat is a lacking feature in ES. Its kind of boring but with a larger scale I think it would feel more "epic." And for the camera problem you can use the free camera option to look at whatever you'd like to see. I usually dont pay much attention to the battles and just look at the distant star and planets in the system you fight in.

Manual battle is usefull. If you watch it and see that the battle is going badly you can chose retreat. Usually you don't do that to keep your fleet alive but rather your hero if you have one in your fleet. They get very expensive very fast to heal.

Edit: And also their bonuses is something you do not want to lose on your fleet because the fleet is gone and your hero recuperating. Do the battles manually to preserve your hero if the battle is close.

I got both, and am enjoying both. Incidentally, a lot of automation features were added to StarDrive in one of the recent patches that some of these commentors may not have noticed yet. There's a ton of optional automation (almost too much, I think) accessible from the "AI" button next to the minimap. You can automate exploration, colonization, creation of subspace amplifier "roads" through deep space, etc. as well as the normal colony governance automation.

Star Drive is very pretty and the ship-to-ship combat is more entertaining but its also unfinished - and it shows - the expansion is very slow and although most things can be automated you end up with a large fleet of freighters moving goods/colonists about.

There are long periods of time where there is almost nothing to do and due to the limited tech tree there's nothing you can research to help turn around this period of slow growth.

I have hope for Star Drive but it I were to purchase one - right now - to play it would be Endless Space.

To be honest i already have stardrive as i bought it as soon as it came on steam, its a truly amazing game and its reached the point where the game is playably finished changes from now on will be mostly cosmetic, its slightly complicated but if you play your first game on easy with the largest map size you will very quickly pick it up, its alot like playing galciv 2 but in rts form.ES i am actually trying to decide wether i want it now that its in the steam sale, ill probable grab it just not completely sure. Having played the free weekend its a decent game but its a bit restricted.

For me ES felt much more shallow compared to SD. Unless ES has gotten a patch I'd say the diplomacy is not it's high point. ES' combat is just rock/paper/scissors and gets boring really quick. I'd go for SD any day of the week.